Read the fine print

The 110th Congress and unrelenting political hardball are both back in session, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has learned.

Minority Republicans were on the losing end of every vote at the hands of the new Democratic majority last week but that hardly stopped them from trying to embarrass the new speaker over an obscure provision of the minimum wage increase bill that Democrats pushed through.

Democrats, led by Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller of Martinez, made a great show of the fact that their bill raised the minimum wage for workers in the Northern Marianas, a territory where now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had successfully worked for years to keep out such laws.

Barton presses the case

Imagine Republicans’ delight when some of their eagle-eyed aides discovered the Democrats’ bill covered all U.S. territories in raising the minimum wage to $7.25 except American Samoa.

Why American Samoa? Because the territory’s Democratic non-voting delegate, Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, worked for an exemption. He apparently said that his Pacific territory’s economy, based almost solely on a tuna fishing industry that faces stiff foreign competition, would be wiped out if it had to pay higher wages.

Republican opponents of the higher minimum wage pointed out that lots of U.S. employers faced with paying low-wage workers more make the same complaint. Democrats said that because of protection from Abramoff and his allies, the Northern Marianas had become notorious for garment industry sweat shop conditions.

But further, the GOP found, Falomavaega is a big recipient of tuna industry donations, and one of the biggest operators in Samoa is Star-Kist, a label owned by Del Monte. And where is Del Monte based? In San Francisco, in Pelosi’s district.

That’s a lot of dots to connect, and the Republicans who told the tale to reporters, never directly connected Pelosi to the Samoa exemption, although some said they were shocked at the legislation. A few newspaper and TV outlets did stories, and some conservative bloggers picked it up, as did some conservative commentators on such outlets as Fox News.

Pelosi’s staff said the speaker hasn’t been lobbied by Del Monte on the wage issue.

The issue also led to a lengthy, serio-comic exchange on the House between Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who was in the House chair the day after the minimum wage bill was debated, and two Republicans, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas and Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina as the House debated stem cell research.

They wanted to embarrass the Democrats and the speaker, but didn’t want to go too strong since the facts don’t add up to a giant scandal, at least not yet, in Washington’s relentless hot house atmosphere. They were also constrained by the fact that 82 of the 202 GOP House members had voted for the Democratic minimum wage bill.

So the two used parliamentary tactics that probably left C-Span viewers, and even some House members, scratching their heads. But Frank, one of the House’s sharpest wits, held his own.

“Mr. Speaker, inquiry of the contents of this legislation,” said McHenry. “Would it be appropriate to offer an amendment at this time exempting American Samoa just as it was from the minimum wage bill?”

“The gentleman will suspend,” Frank ordered. “Under the rule that was adopted, no amendment is in order at this time.”

McHenry: “So the gentleman…”

Frank: “The gentleman has asked the parliamentary inquiry, and he has received the answer.”

This went back and forth for a bit until Barton rose.

Barton: “Point of order.”

Frank: “The gentleman will state his point of order.”

Barton: “How many times…”

Frank: “No. ‘How many times’ could not conceivably be a point of order. It could be a parliamentary inquiry, but it could not conceivably be a point of order.”

McHenry: “I have one additional parliamentary inquiry. Is American Samoa exempted from this bill before us on the House floor?”

Frank: “The chair will respond to the gentleman: That is not a parliamentary inquiry; that is an inquiry about the substance of a bill. Questions about substance of legislation are not parliamentary inquiries. Parliamentary inquiries pertain to the procedures.”

This went on until McHenry asked, “Is there a way by which I can derive whether or not American Samoa, like the minimum wage bill, is exempted from this legislation?”

Frank: “The answer is as follows: He asks the gentleman on his side who controls debate time to yield him time. He may then with that time under the rule make the question.

“The other way I could say the gentleman could find out would be by reading the bill. Read the bill and it will tell you.”

After more quibbling, an exasperated Frank finally put a stop to the show by saying: “The gentleman from Texas (Rep. Michael Burgess) is recognized to yield time for someone who might actually want to debate the bill.”

Off the floor, Republicans pointed out that if nothing else the situation showed that Democrats, by pushing the bill through without committee hearings, had been sloppy.

They also got the last laugh when Pelosi announced on Friday that she wants the final version of the legislation, which must go to the House and then to a House-Senate conference committee, to cover Samoa along with all other U.S. territories.